Thermally insulated storage containers can provide a storage area that may slow the temperature change of its contents, either by slowing the loss of thermal energy from the storage area to a cooler exterior environment, or by slowing the transfer of thermal energy from a warmer exterior environment to the storage area and its contents. While certain uses of insulated storage containers are mainly for convenience or comfort, such as keeping beverages warm or cool for longer periods of time without refrigeration, other uses of insulated storage containers may be critical to prevent damage and/or loss of important contents such as medicines, vaccines, biological materials, spoilable food product, or organs awaiting transplant, to name a few. Unlike a beverage that can be cooled again if the storage container allows it to become too warm to enjoy, some goods having biological materials may have living components or tissue that cannot be brought back to life once they fall outside a particular temperature range. Even certain medicines and vaccines that do not contain biological materials may include chemical compositions that become unstable outside a particular temperature range and cannot be restabilized. For example, some such materials must be kept continuously at temperatures ranging from 2° C. to 8° C., a relatively narrow temperature range above which degradation of the materials can occur, and below which destruction by freezing can occur.
Because these types of temperature sensitive materials can often be expensive to produce and replace, losses due to inadequate temperature maintenance can be excessive economically, reduce adequate access to medicines by those in need of them, or in some cases can be the difference between life and death. Compounding these problems is the fact that oftentimes the populations of the world that are most in need of medicines and vaccines, for example, are located in remote and/or underdeveloped areas. It is often the case that electrically powered refrigeration is unlikely to be widely available in such areas. In these instances, available electrical refrigeration units may be many miles from one another, requiring transport without refrigeration for extended periods of time. Even where refrigerated transportation means are available, local refrigerated storage at destinations in some underdeveloped areas of the world may be subject to frequent power outages, voltage spikes, generator fuel shortages, and damaged or poorly maintained equipment. Thermally insulated storage containers may be used to maintain their contents within particular temperature ranges in these or other instances of temporary absences of powered refrigeration.